Watercooler: Why, Whitney, Why?

Usually, Whitney Cummings is a total scream. Her work on the Comedy Central roasts is always insanely bawdy. She executive produces the solidly entertaining 2 Broke Girls. And she's hot, if that's what you're into. But her eponymous sitcom, which she also executive produces and launched last night? Yikes.

Ironically, for a show centered on a sassy mouthed photographer, the entire experience is jarringly artless. Shrill to the point of infuriating, armed with an assaultive laugh track and crammed with clichés (can we please euthanize the "boozy, bitter gal pal" concept immediately?), the few laughs that did land without a thud were surely cribbed from Cummings' stand-up routines. The rest — mostly fatigued gags about Kardashians, Cosmo magazine and an overly long seduction bit that went limp way before we were subjected to an awkwardly emotional dénouement — was a grim reminder of the talent being wasted before our very eyes. What could have been another one of NBC's great, flawed, relatable female characters, a la Liz Lemon or Grace Adler, felt more like the type of harpy those two would find offensive.

It's a shame. We love Cummings, and her costar Chris D'Elia has charm to spare. Here's hoping that they find better material going forward so we can all forget that this badness happened to such good performers.